Meet the real life Direwolves from Game of Thrones®

“Lord Stark. There are five pups, one for each of the Stark children. The Direwolf is a sigil of your house. They were meant to have them.”
– Jon Snow

In the opening scenes in Season 1 ‘Winter is Coming’, the five Stark children – Robb, Sansa, Bran, Arya and Rickon – plus the bastard Jon Snow, each adopt a Direwolf puppy after they find the orphaned litter in the Wolfswood beside their dead mother.

Ever wondered if the Direwolves are actually real in Game of Thrones and what breed the Game of Thrones Direwolves are? Well now is your chance to find out….. HBO® were unable to use real wolves in filming due to UK laws and the fact that they had to work with small children, so the production team used Northern Inuit dogs as these are the closest thing to a real wolf - they are a domestic dog breed closely resembling a wolf.

Odin and Thor (they are brothers and are named after the Old Viking Gods in real life) played Summer & Grey Wind, they starred in many scenes including the ‘finding of the Direwolf puppies’ scene, and now you can meet them on tour at their home Winterfell Castle by prior arrangement.

Odin and Thor were trained by the very talented and popular Caroline Benoist, including how to ‘howl’ on command. Caroline (26 years old) who also trained the dogs in the Harry Potter films died suddenly in December 2010. The 5th episode in Season 1 ‘The Wolf and The Lion’ was dedicated to Caroline by HBO®.

Please contact us if you would like to meet the real life Direwolves Odin and Thor as part of your Game of Thrones tour, they are very friendly chaps and are well used to being on camera/getting their photo taken!

£POA

Please Note - This real life Direwolf Experience is only available 'in combination with' booking another tour/experience at Winterfell.

Note: These experiences are independently operated by Peak Discovery Group in partnership with the National Trust and other local tourism partners. They are not sponsored, endorsed, or affiliated with HBO or anyone associated with ‘Game of Thrones’.

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